Cricket Sitting
by ramblingkitten
Summary: Hook confides in our resident conscience while he is aboard his ship. Rated K because I'm paranoid. Each chapter is a one shot.


Title: Cricket Sitting

Rating: uh K+ there may be swearing.

Characters: Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones, Dr. Archie Hopper/Jimiiny Cricket Brotp

Summary: Hook confides in our favorite conscience while he is held captive on his ship.

A/N - I own nothing but what my muse leaves for me. Thank you to Muck and Stark for the lovely prompt

Hook paced the deck of the Jolly Roger, wondering what had possessed him in the first place to stick around with Cora. Yes magic was back, but she was getting on his last nerve. He had waited three hundred years for this and he was so close he could taste it. Yet here he was on guard duty for the cricket Cora had kidnapped. He stormed back down to the hold, something was nagging at him and he needed answers. He threw open the coverings for where the man was stashed and looked down again.

"You don't look much like a cricket, I'd have thought you'd have been smaller." He said with a slight smirk before he knelt down. Reaching in Hook pulled the gag off the other man's mouth twisting it in his fingers as he rose back up. Walking away he spoke as he grabbed a bucket of drinking water. "Now, you don't really need this off for me to speak, but I'd rather you not die on my ship. Disposing of bodies can be quite messy." He returned and lowered down a cup of water making sure the cricket man had a hold of it before he sat down nearby. After taking a good drink of the water, Archie braved to speak.

"So, what exactly do you plan to do to make me chirp?" the shrink called up to the pirate. The pirate in question was mildly taken aback by the question. He didn't expect him to have any backbone. He surely didn't look like someone who had to stand up to people.

"Well now, telling you would take the fun out of it." Hook replied as he inspected the tip of his hook. "Now, Hopper is it?" he asked but before the other man could reply he pushed on. "So, how exactly do you know so much about this town?"

"I am their psychiatrist for the past twenty-eight years. When they have problems they come to me to talk it out." Archie calmly answered him.

"Yes, because talking things out always works so well." Hook snarked back at the shrink.

"You never know, have you ever even tried it?" Archie asked him.

"Tried what? Talking about my feelings? I'm not a girl." Hook told him, his annoyance with the idea bleeding through into his voice.

"I wasn't implying anything, just that you shouldn't judge something before you try it. Sometimes talking things out puts it all into perspective and allows you to move on." Archie explained to his captor.

"I already have things well in perspective, cricket. I don't see how talking about things would make it any better." Hook replied, not entirely sure why he was still speaking with the man.

"Maybe so, but like I said, you shouldn't just something before you try it. And as I'm likely not to be going anywhere soon, I am willing to listen." Archie told him. He wasn't a stupid man, he knew his time was very likely limited; but it was at his heart that he would try to help every troubled soul he met and Hook seemed to have a very troubled soul.

Hook knocked the wooden slats back onto of where the cricket was being held. He didn't need to talk about anything. He was a perfectly balance, revenge driven pirate. What was wrong with that? He retreated back to his quarters and made himself a drink. He figured some rum would help relieve the tension of being stuck here on his own ship unable to take revenge. He had taken a brief respite while Cora was taking care of her own business and watched the Swan girl.

She had bested him, not once but multiple times and that was something very rare in his life. If he wanted to admit it to himself, which he really didn't, she had gotten under his skin and he wanted to get to know her more. Half a bottle of rum later, he walked back into where the cricket man was being kept. He flung open the slats, having them almost fall back down twice before he got them to stay; and plopped himself down the rum bottle firmly grasped in his hand.

"Come back already? I wouldn't have figured you one for giving in so easily." Archie called up from his place.

"I am not giving into anything; I am simply here for a friendly chat with a bug." Hook sassed back to the cricket man.

"Alright then, what would you like to talk about? I am at your mercy here." Archie inquired to him as he tried to shift his weight to make himself remotely comfortable.

"Aye right you are." Hook commented taking another drink from the bottle.

"In order for therapy to work, the person seeking the help has to actually talk; preferably about more than their favorite type of drink." Archie remarked to the pirate.

"You know for a bug you are quiet forward with what you say." Hook told the man.

"And you are quiet good at avoiding why you really came back down here. Tell me, why is it you want to know about Rumplestiltskin so much?" Dr. Hopper asked him.

"I'll make you a deal, if I tell you my reasoning, you will tell me whatever I want to know." Hook proposed.

"I don't see any harm in that. As much as I'd prefer to keep my patients confidence I don't see you letting me out of here alive if that is the case." The kind doctor responded. "So what did Rumplestiltskin do to you?" He asked the other man. Hook paused and carefully thought about it. Later he would swear it was the rum that got him talking.

"There was a woman, there is always a woman isn't there? She was different than any woman I had met before. She made an excellent pirate with her rebellious, fiery nature. She wanted adventure, and I could give that to her. She just happened to be married at the time that she joined me on my ship. Not that a married woman was a surprised, I have had many a man's wife in my time, it was who she was married to. He was a coward of a man, didn't even know how to use a sword." He took a swig of the rum before he continued, "When we went to port years later he found me at a tavern, he was different then. He had turned into the Dark one. I tried to protect her by lying to him, but she was too stubborn for that. She made a deal with him to spare _my_ life, and when we were back on the ship he betrayed her. He ripped out her heart right in front of me and crushed _IT_." His voice was quaked with emotion as his throat constricted over the words. He hadn't spoken of this in over three hundred years. "He killed his own wife because she didn't love him enough to stay. Because she wanted a different life." His voice choked off and the resounding crash of a bottle reverberated through the ship. The quiet in the room was heavy as Archie gave the other man a moment to grieve.

"You loved her, and he took her from you. That is enough to make even the toughest man break. Am I right to guess that he is also the one who took your hand?" The shrink questioned.

"Yes, the crocodile certainly did." Hook replied, his voice sounded oddly defeated in that moment.

"How long have you waited for this chance at revenge?" Dr. Hopper asked him.

"Over three hundred years, most of which I spent in Neverland waiting to find the perfect method." Hook sneered, his voice clearing of the defeat, being replaced with cold detached determination.

"Giving into ones dark side never accomplishes anything." The bug man insisted to him. "In the process you lose who you really are."

"I think the ship has said on that one, all I am is my revenge. I don't care if it kills me."

"You do, otherwise you wouldn't be down here talking to me." Archie paused, weighing his next words. "Snow and Emma each spoke to me briefly after their return. The mentioned you did help them at some point. That doesn't sound like a man only driven by revenge. What changed there?" He asked him.

"I only helped them because it help further my attempts to get here." Hook scoffed at the man.

"You had a sword fight with Emma did you not?" Archie questioned.

"Yes, she bested me, again." Hook marveled, his voice relaying the slight admiration at the action.

"She bested you; a three hundred year old pirate who has wielded a sword his whole life against someone who has probably only wielded one a handful of times?" Archie questioned, he had been wondering this since his conversation with Emma.

"She managed to catch me off guard." Hook defended.

"Ah so the fight was over quickly, you didn't once have any chance to defeat her before she caught you off guard?" Archie prodded.

"I," Hook started and faltered, replaying the fight in his rum addled brain. "I saw no reason to kill her right then."

"And why is that?" Archie questioned, forcing Hook to think over his motivations to leave the Swan girl alive.

"She intrigued me; no woman has ever bested me before and few men. She managed to surprise me more than once on our journey up the beanstalk. She has a passion and an energy that sets her apart from the women I've encountered. She provides quite the challenge." Hook explained.

"So you have feelings for Emma." Archie commented.

"Feelings?" Hook scoffed, "I do not have feelings for Swan. She tried to feed me to ogres, left me to a giant, and knocked me out with a compass."

"From the sounds of it she did manage to get under your skin. You wouldn't be so guarded about her if you didn't care." Archie told him.

"What are you getting at bug?" Hook asked.

"That whether or not you realize it, you do feel something for Emma." Archie told him.

"Yes, annoyance, curiosity," Hook answered him.

"Those may be the ones you focus on, but tell me honestly, why didn't you kill her at the portal? You had the opportunity; she had betrayed you and she stood in the way of getting to Storybrooke. Why not just get rid of her then?" Archie asked.

"I already told you, she intrigued me. She," Hook stopped speaking then, the words wanting to come scaring even the pirate. He was beginning to be too sober for this conversation.

"She what?" Archie pushed, he already had a slight feeling. He had seen the look in Emma's eyes when she talked about her interactions with Hook. She had felt something for the pirate that she was afraid to admit or address. He knew Emma; she had walls built higher around her heart than ever since Graham.

"She made me want to get to know her, find out what makes her tick. And I do love a challenge." Hook answered the shrink. If Archie could see his face, he guessed his eyes would have had the same look Emma's had when talking about the pirate. Archie contemplated his next words carefully.

"Emma will prove to be a challenge; she has been hurt in the past. She's never elaborated to me but I can see it when she talks about anything that has happened in her past. If you want to find out anything about her, you will have to approach her slowly and earn her trust. It's not something she gives away freely." Archie told the pirate. After hearing no response from Hook, Archie braved to speak again. "As for Rumplestiltskin, I only know what I have observed about him. He has never been one to talk to me. But I do know he has different things here that are driving him. He has learned to care for someone other than himself. I do not know how that will factor into what you want."

"I will find a way to get my revenge on him; I have not waited all this time to just let it go." Hook reminded the cricket.

"Then all I will say again is that giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything. You will lose who you really are. There is no coming back from that." Archie reminded him.

"Duly noted, cricket." Hook replied as he got up. "Try not to chirp all night, some of us like to sleep." He snarked as he shut the wooden slats back down on top of the shrink. Hook then retreated back to his quarters, mentally cursing himself for talking to the bug man. He was right, it accomplished nothing. He still hated Rumplestiltskin, he still wanted revenge and he still had no clue as to what to do about the Swan girl. He opened another bottle or rum to nurse his wounds.

Early in the morning Hook awoke and cleaned himself up. His head only mildly aching from the rum, and he fully remembered the embarrassing conversation with the bug man. As he reattached his hook he headed out into the grey part of the morning. This was one of his favorite times of the day. The sun would just be getting ready to crest on the horizon, and the sea was still from the night. He set out from his ship towards a vantage point he had discovered and set out to watch his objectives.


End file.
